And then you pay import duties, taxes, shipping costs, etc... until it costs more than it would have.

Haha, silly naive people Aussies pay GST tax, which amazon and most international companies include in cost, and that's it. Import taxes only come into play for goods over $1000 I think, could be $2000 can't remember.

Nop. Shipping fee only costs around $12 from amazon. Import taxes is for items worth over $1000.
Australians have a higher median salary amount than americans. Our dollar is also worth more so when paying $400 USD for a GPU from amazon, in reality we are paying less than that in our currency.
Which means we've already covered most if not all of the shipping costs just from having a strong dollar.

Quote:

Originally Posted by gtarmanrob

Haha, silly naive people Aussies pay GST tax, which amazon and most international companies include in cost, and that's it. Import taxes only come into play for goods over $1000 I think, could be $2000 can't remember.

Ah, here in the UK we get it worse then, with regards to importing - although our prices are not quite as bad in the first place.